Winnetka Police and Firefighters Pension Fund

Winnetka Police and Firefighters Pension Fund

Established by the Village of Winnetka, Illinois, this single-employer pension plan provides retirement and disability benefits exclusively to sworn police officers and firefighters and their dependents. The fund is financed through a combination of property tax revenue levied by the Village and mandatory officer contributions. Treasurer Jolene Gensler oversees both the police and firefighter pension boards under the authority of the Village Manager's office. Board leadership includes Firefighters Pension Board President Chris Kopecky and secretaries Dylan Majcher (Police) and Andrew MacArthur (Firefighters). By Illinois statute, the fund's investment strategy has undergone a structural shift. The bulk of its growth-oriented assets has been transferred to two consolidated statewide investment pools: the Illinois Police Officers' Pension Investment Fund (IPOPIF) based in Peoria and the Illinois Firefighters' Pension Investment Fund (FPIF) based in Lombard. This consolidation, mandated under 2019 Illinois Public Act 101-0610, strips local boards of direct control over asset allocation and external manager selection for equities and alternatives, consolidating roughly $16 billion in downstate and suburban police and firefighter pension assets under state-level investment management. The fund's governance structure reflects a hybrid model common among Illinois municipal plans post-consolidation. While investment management authority has largely shifted to IPOPIF and FPIF, the local board — which includes active and retired police and firefighter representatives alongside municipal finance officials — retains administrative duties, benefit calculations, and oversight of the Village's actuarial funding schedule. The fund has historically participated in the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association, an industry group providing educational resources to local public safety pension boards. The Winnetka plan, like many suburban Illinois public safety funds, addresses its unfunded liability through the Village's property tax levy, as detailed in the Village's annual financial reports (public record). The fund's most defining structural feature is its diminished local investment authority. Unlike a typical single-employer pension plan that hires consultants, runs RFPs, and builds a diversified manager roster, Winnetka's board now functions primarily as an administrative and oversight body. The consolidation model, designed to improve risk-adjusted returns through scale and professional management, means this fund's investment results are now largely a function of the performance of the Peoria and Lombard state pools rather than any distinct local allocation strategy.